so that i can continue to support us. hillary clinton has proposed real things that could help us. i' m hillary clinton, and i approve this message. adam: now at noon, deadly tornadoes tearing through parts of the country just before christmas. the destruction and the cleanup underway. but here the forecast the tell a , different story. josh: temperatures on the rise. we' ve still got fog and mist, but a warm front is approaching to change all that. adam: a season of giving surprise. the big donation one person dropped into a local salvation army kettle. and we are tracking santa claus. the location of ole saint nick on this christmas eve. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> no one covers new hampshire like we do.

adam: christmas eve is here, and if you have not made it over the river and through the woods to grandmother' s house weather , should not be getting in your way -- at least in new england. good afternoon, i' m adam sexton. the countdown to christmas is on. right now, santa claus is just passing new delhi and has delivered over a billion presents. and it looks like when he flies over the granite state, he' ll be josh, tell us more about the weather record broken that was set in 1871? josh: we are poised to break a record for sure as temperatures are insanely warm this time of year. it is warm out now, but not as zooming in on areas just to our west. springfield, 61, orange, red on 63. 63 in jaffrey, and all of this

look at where the front is struggling with low clouds and fog, but we are still in the upper 40' s and lower 50' s and headed or the 60' s as we go through the rest of the afternoon. we will take a closer look at how that arise and how long it lasts, and your christmas forecast in a few minutes. adam: josh, thank you. at least seven people are confirmed dead, including a 7-year-old boy, after severe storms hit the southeast. 24 possible tornadoes were reported last night across six states. abc' s elizabeth hur has more. >> still coming right at us. >> it is a big tornado in front of us. elizabeth: destruction and devastation across six states, including mississippi, arkansas and tennessee. , >> your heart just sinks. it makes you feel terrible. and you want to run and help and do the best you can. tornadoes touching down, ripping homes apart, and flipping side. >> oh, wow, looks like it' s two. elizabeth: leaving drivers terrified, watching these two twisters become one huge tornado

>> monster tornado heading toward holly springs. elizabeth: holly springs, mississippi hit especially hard. mayor buck: i' m seeing devastation that i haven' t seen. elizabeth: parts of the town, destroyed. two people killed, including a 7-year-old boy. s a death like the case of this young person or the devastation to the christmas eve, it' s very very hard to deal with, but we will pull though. we ask that the people just pray for our community and the people here. elizabeth: and with that vow to rebuild, take a look at this promising sign in the town of clarksdale, homes reduced to rubble, but this christmas tree, somehow still standing. again, their home was torn to pieces, but the homeowner was grateful they survived. meantime, the authorities say the damages are still being assessed, and right now, all they can ask for, are prayers. elizabeth hur, abc news, new york.

rush before christmas. aaa says for the first time ever, more than 100 million people will travel over the holidays. and motorists are finding a gift at the pump. prices plummeted this week below $2 for the first time in six years. and a bit of advice for those flying this holiday. tsa screeners can now require anyone to go through body scanners even if they want to opt out. until now, passengers could choose a full body pat down instead. a derry woman is facing charges after police say she crashed her truck into a porch. the accident happened shortly after 1:00 this morning near the intersection of fordway and south avenue. police say 27-year-old lindsay simon hit a fence, went down an embankment, and then slammed into the deck of the house, knocking it off its supports. two adults and a young child were inside at the time, but they were not hurt. police say simon left the scene but was later arrested on multiple charges, including dwi. we are following new

of convicted murderer aaron hernandez. a boston judge has postponed the former patriot star' s double murder and witness intimidation trial. both prosecutors and defense lawyers asked for the delay. the case will return to court january 19. fire officials are investigating a three-alarm fire in northwood. flames broke out around 10:00 a.m. at a vacant log cabin on mill pond road. investigators say the fire may be suspicious. the state fire marshal has been called to the scene to try to determine the cause of the fire. a nashua man was hospitalized this morning with chest injuries after he a van hit him while he was walking along a road in hudson. the accident occurred shortly after midnight on lowell road. police say due to the rain, the driver never saw the man, who was wearing dark clothing and walking close to the white line. at this time, no charges have been filed against the driver. a laconia woman is accused of crashing her car while driving under the influence. police say 20-year-old jillian vallee hit a tree. her car flipped over and landed in a backyard on belvidere

vallee had left the vehicle. they found her after a brief search. police say her blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit. two rochester men are due in court today to face charges in connection with several burglaries and thefts from cars. when police arrested zachary sutton and joshua day, they say they found several items reported stolen earlier this month worth more than $1500. investigators say more charges are possible. well, it is christmas eve, and some procrastinators are rushing to malls trying to get as much as possible. but yesterday, one person gave quite a bit to the salvation army in the form of just one coin. our stephanie woods is live at the market basket in nashua to explain. stephanie? stephanie: adam, yesterday a volunteer with the salvation army, like our friend andrew right here, was ringing her bell right here at somerset plaza when someone dropped a wadded up

only when she got back to salvation army headquarters did she realize what was inside a u.s. gold coin. but this isn' t the first time this has happened. wrapped around the coin was a note saying "merry christmas. use this gold coin for your good works. worth, $1400." the nashua salvation army received another gold coin worth $1200 last year. wrapped in a similar note. salvation army pastor major david moore says there' s no way to tell if this coin came from the same anonymous donor. moore says this coin will help stock the nashua food pantry, which helps feeds 300 to 400 people each month. maj. moore: we thank whoever this person is, and they appreciate the work that we do as we reach out to many people in need in the area. and we thank them for their support, and we thank everyone for their support. whether they' re giving a gold coin or just a few pennies, it all adds up. andrew: thank you, merry christmas.

the salvation army will get this coin appraised, and then they will auction it off at their annual groundhog' s day brunch. in nashua stephanie woods wmur news 9. adam: thank you, stephanie. there' s more news ahead on news 9 this noon. a major hotel chain hacked. what hyatt hotel officials are now advising customers whose information may have been exposed. sen. cruz: it' s not complicated. don' t make fun of a five-year-old girl and a seven-year-old girl. adam: why ted cruz is so upset over what a major newspaper published about his family. josh: we had heavy rain last night and still some scattered showers, mist, drizzle, fog out there. now we have changes on the way. a look at that coming up. adam: plus in today' s cook' s corner, we' re sharing holiday cooking tips from our kitchen to yours.

adam: in commitment 2016, senator ted cruz is taking on a major newspaper this noon saying it crossed the line. cruz and other candidates are upset that "the washington post" ran a cartoon depicting cruz' s young daughters as toy monkeys attached to his campaign. sen. cruz: don' t mess with our kids. don' t mess with my kids. don' t mess with marco' s kids. don'

s kids. adam: meanwhile, frontrunners donald trump and hillary clinton continue to clash on twitter. the republican frontrunner tweeting this warning after clinton said trump is known for having a "penchant for sexism in " in an interview. trump posted "who are you referring to?" be careful." now to a cyber attack on a major christmas. they' on the computer system used to process customer payments. right now, customers are being asked to monitor their payment card statements. at this time, hyatt officials have not said whether any customer data was stolen. live pictures of christmas in bethlehem. this year, there is celebration, and sadness. abc' s molly hunter is there with the story. mai awada: it' s a mixed feeling between the celebration and the sad feeling.

widely this year . after months of violence in the occupied palestinian territories and israel left 19 israelis and more than 130 palestinians dead. israel says more than half of those were attackers. in manger square today, the birth place of jesus, the crowds smaller, tourism suffering. people say they' ve never seen it like this . as celebrations kick off in bethlehem, christmas arrives at a more somber time this year here and across the middle east, christians are fleeing persecution across iraq and syria. dr. barghouti: but at the same of resilience. people insist to celebrate christmas to send a message of hope that we christians, muslims, palestinians are here

molly: resilience and optimism says natalie. are you going to celebrate more this year because of the tension, because of the violence? natalie the only way you fight and by peace. happiness. and by music. merry christmas. molly: molly, hunter, abc news, bethlehem. adam: are you done? josh: i am about done. how are you? adam: mostly. [laughter] josh: it is not a temperatures we are getting too, but it feels pretty mild out there. we will talk about in a minute. skarupa is in the news 9 s making and his special holiday

>> now, meteorologist josh judge with your stormwatch 9 forecast. josh: good christmas eve day, afternoon here. 50 degrees in goffstown. look at that fog. low clouds and fog have midday as well. the thinking is as this front crosses through, it should help

regardless, the temperatures are already quite warm and should be getting warmer because of the air mass. not even needing a lot of sunshine to do that. look at the visibilities. they are low. manchester cam showing thick fog in the valley there, up to the lakes region, more fog there as well cured over to the seacoast, those temperatures have been rising, zooming and close here to show you the temperatures our south into our west. the temperatures have surged. as they are approaching the granite state, slowing down, but and penetrate. you can see orange here at six to 30 degrees right on the mass- -- at 6 >> 3 degrees right here on the mass-new hampshire border. vermont.

rutland. in the 40' s. slowly, this will push its way through, but it will take a lot of time. it is possible we will reach the high temperatures we are expecting late afternoon or even even early evening. it is taking its time for sure. look at the clouds and showers. we could see a passing shower or two. that front is all the way down, this is where all the tornadoes were in these very severe weather ring. us. on the one side, cooler air starts to spill in for the weekend and next week. next week could be interesting just a little bit. s a look at futurecast -- a couple of showers possible. notice how it is tried to clear things out for the afternoon. that will certainly go a long way for helping us reach record high temperatures. the record in concord is 57 today. we should be able to do better than that. clearing skies tonight and

sunshine for your christmas day, and temperatures tomorrow will still be on the mild side. on saturday, we start off with some sunshine, but we are' s eati -- are seeing some clouds. they perhaps less into sunday. tuesday, watching this storm system closely. this could be our first wintry weather tight storm of the season. we will watch that very closely. here is a look at the temperatures to expect this afternoon as long as we can clear out and get that warm front through and into the rest of the week and the weekend. a pretty nice christmas day. we will be watching of course tuesday afternoon. kevin skarupa will have more on that this afternoon, but first, kevin is in cook' s corner. kevin: ho, ho, ho, and merry christmas feared kevin skarupa with us with one of my holiday recipes. i have my two little helpers. noah, my nephew, and my son levi. we are making mushroom croissants.

by sister-in-law, auntie, and mommy. they were started by nana first. they were delicious. you preheat an oven at 375, and then noah over here has been doing the cream cheese. making it nice and soft. you can heat it up if you have to. you take two packages of cream cheese, softened them. take the cans of mushrooms, pieces and stems, and you chop them up really small because they will be inside the crescent rolls. take what you have here and put you can use this here, kind of bowl. what we will do while they do ready. use the pre-practice crescent rolls, cut them into rectangles -- pre-packaged crescent rolls,

th -- you guys stir that up now with the fork. and then what you do is make sure you have themall all binded together with a little flour so they will hold together because these will go in the oven. once we have that mixed -- i will take this and you guys get ready for the next thing you are going to do. i will load up the croissants. you take the loaded up croissant -- you do not want to overfill this. you want to have just enough in here that you can put it all together. we will take that, and you will put them together like a little bit of a roll, just like this. and you are going to package up the edges, make sure it stays together. and then you are going to full old them over and put them on the baking sheet. we have the egg wash, which is to add whites, put them enable

go ahead, levi. we leave that as is. there. some sesame seeds. 375 for 10 to 12 minutes. pop them in the oven, and then the magic of television is what this is hot. slice them up. excellent cold. what you guys want for christmas? levi: i want a costume like from "star wars: the force awakens." noah: and i want a nerf gun. and all. say merry christmas, guys.

on average, it takes three hundred americans

to make as much money as one top ceo. and the republicans will make it worse by lowering taxes for those at the top and letting corporations write their own rules. hillary clinton will work to close the wage gap. equal pay for women to raise incomes for families, a higher minimum wage, lower taxes for the middle class. she gets the job done for us. i'm hillary clinton and i approve this message. adam: you are looking at our countdown to christmas. you can see we are less than 12

new england. live pictures from norad. santa and his reindeer have delivered over a billion presents so far. he will be shutting the layers and the granite state. josh: he has been busy already. the temperatures will be much milder than he is used to tonight and right into tomorrow as well. tomorrow, a good deal of sunshine. temperatures well into the 50' s. a beautiful christmas day on the way here we will watch next tuesday for a potential winter storm. adam: santa-print hawaiian shirts. starting tonight at 5:00, a closer look at those new rules for airport body scanners. and the sanders: over 2 million contributions have been made to the only campaign that rejects a corrupt campaign finance system. you can't level the playing field with wall street banks and billionaires by taking their money. i'm bernie sanders,